ET
by arjelle
Summary: It was a chance encounter, really. She needed her inspiration. He needed his facts. USfem!UK
1. Part One

**ET**

_It was a chance encounter, really. She needed inspiration. He needed his facts. US/fem!UK for the USxUK-Club's Double Contest, written for the fan fiction category._

**Part One **_Encounters_

"Rose," She flinched at the sound of her name. Her editor's tone was stern, demanding, and sure as hell pissed. She didn't know why though, Rose had written her short story, as requested, the prompt being anything that would inspire her. But, she wasn't easily impressed as any other author. She needed to be amazed, wowed, won over; the inspiration had to be original and amazing, and coming from the fact that millions of stories have been written, she couldn't find the most original idea. And if she would, it would one way or another, reflect another idea. How unoriginal. She hated that.

"Yes sir?" It took her a few moments to reply to her editor. She clenched her teeth as she said so, preparing for the worst. When she had started working with him, she had expected what she had known. Francis Bonnefoy was, is, and forever will be a picky editor, always digging for originality, and therefore, he almost always pushed Rose to do her best, even if it means getting out of her comfort zones. If he wasn't doing that, he would be with his girlfriend, Madeline. Rose had met her before. She had come over to deliver one of her works to Francis personally one day and he wasn't home. Maddie was there to answer the door, and offered her coffee and cookies. She was a sweet person compared to her boyfriend.

"Rose," Francis had said again, with more disappointment. "I thought you said you came up with something magnificent."

"I did!" Rose said defensively, a little bit too loud, she had noticed. She shrunk back in her seat, and sat back up. "It's just... You try to find the most original idea! So many years and decades... and... And... Centuries of passed and," God, she felt like she was repeating herself. "...It's not that easy to find a pure original idea, you know? Fairy tales, historical, comedy, romance, science fiction."

"There, science fiction!"

"Excuse me?"

"Write a story involving science fiction," Francis nodded, confirming his suggestion.

Rose chuckled. "It's not my cup of tea."

"Comedy wasn't either, and that story sold pretty well. Just... try it, Rose," She frowned. "When have I ever put you in a wrong direction when it comes to literature?"

Alfred stared at the sight in front of him. It was pitch black, the stars being the only source of light at the moment. He took a step forward and let his fingers touch the cold, hard glass, separating him from the outside. Everything was going so fast, and it wasn't just the vehicle he was in- it was his own life. He just finished school, and was about to have independent studies, like all the other hard working people on his planet. Was it even his planet anyway? He had been living there all his life, but he wasn't a part of the civilization there himself.

No, he was a human. An alien to them, but they were the aliens to him.

Adopted most of all.

Alfred had noticed how different he was from his friends and family, but they always calmed him down, saying that it's alright. So long as they are in peace, everything is alright. Although, one day, he had been informed by his parents that he wasn't a part of them. That he wasn't like them, that he was a human being. Alfred had denied himself of this fact, and after taking his anger out in the forest outside of his house, he came back home for his adoptive parents to explain.

Apparently, when he was younger, Alfred was in danger, and they had no choice but to help him. But it came to the point where they couldn't return him back, and felt that his old home wasn't deserving of the child they had found. No, his adoptive parents found him far too brilliant for his previous home. So they took him away from it. It seemed like a good idea at the moment, but now, they had felt the need that it was time for Alfred to go back to where he really belongs. They had assured him that they would always love him no matter what, and such. For his journey, they had told him about his sister, of how she could help him get back on his feet, adjust to Earth too. They had also thrown in a space ship for the travel, and Alfred's adoptive brother, Tony to escort him there.

Tony and Alfred grew close over the years, and he was wary of the fact that his own brother would live with humans. He had seen them, read of them, gathered every piece of information he could about them, and concluded that humans were more greedy and manipulative than they were. He sometimes even questioned how Alfred could be a part of them- clearly, he wasn't. Sure, he would be obnoxious sometimes, and a bit of a pig, but hey, everyone had their own flaws. And whenever Tony had made this comment, he would add that the humans on Earth were worse.

Alfred could beg to differ. He hadn't even met them yet, but he had a rather good feeling about them. Maybe it was because he was one of them? He was just so curious about everything- their history, their culture, their life styles; leisure, hobbies, careers, the subjects would never end. Alfred was always and still is the curious little boy he was. He would miss his home planet dearly, but he had to accept that he would have to live in his birth planet, and from what he had read in all the books and films, it was completely different from his home planet.

He was given ideas on where and how to look for his sister. First clue being that she was last seen with him somewhere in New York, that both of them were in foster care, meaning she could be anywhere by now. The only clue of her appearance was an old photograph of them as little kids, the photograph he was always told of who he wasn't anymore. Now, he was told to go back to that person he once was.

To be honest, Alfred felt that they should just really make up their minds.

"The usual, Kiku," Rose had spent all day in the library, looking for some books that would ignite her interests in a science fiction related subject. If she was going to do science fiction, she might as well find a sub-category of it remotely interesting. Time travel seemed interesting, but it seemed like it's been done too much. Aliens? No. That sub-category, she told herself to definitely stay away from. She would have been more willing to write for it, but seeing all the reputation from it, her writing for that category is just begging for her to be singled out to be a crazy person. Well, _crazier_ person, actually, since she's been caught talking to thin air. Writing that children's story book was just too fun, that all the creatures she had thought of followed her. And in her opinion, they had kept her company. So she didn't mind at all.

Rose had settled in the same corner she had always settled in the first time she had sat in the cafe. She took her computer out and logged onto her account. Rose had taken a liking to this cafe in particular. It was almost always quiet, it only being packed if there was an event. There was, of course, the usual chatter, but it was kept to a minimum. The music played on the speakers was her type of music, plus she made friends with one of the workers, Kiku Honda.

He was a nice fellow, a bit short though, even if Rose didn't wear her usual boots. The Japanese man was the best at making her type of tea, and even offered to make her some off work.

"Here you go, Rose," Kiku smiled as he set her tea down on the table, next to her computer.

"Thank you, Kiku," Rose said. "Maybe you could stick around? I've been bored for a while now, so..."

"No problem," Kiku bowed. "I would love to hear about your day, but Yao gave me the next shift for inventory duty. My apologies."

"Oh..." Rose's face fell. "It's no problem. I need to think of ideas anyways."

Rose's schedule was always planned out. Having the same events every day, it being a routine, actually. And the only times it would be different is if she had to meet up with Francis to discuss on her stories. Kiku was there to chat with her when he had time off from taking orders, and so was Elizaveta. Elizaveta was the wife the pianist who occasionally played for the cafe, and not to mention, a skilled cook. She would love to talk to Rose, having a girl to talk to at times, but she was always told to be in the kitchen and cook. Sometimes, she had mentioned. She just wanted to hit them all with her skillet and have a break from cooking, as much as she loved it. Roderich was a rather interesting man to have a conversation, but he was too busy working on his music, or busy with his wife.

Francis and Rose had known each other for quite some time, the two being rather close, but ever since Francis had become Rose's editor, it's more of a business relationship than an actual friendship. Maddie was there too, although she was rather quiet, but tried her best to contribute to the conversation.

After sitting in the cafe for about an hour, she packed up and got ready to go back to her flat.

Alfred was too focused on looking at the planet straight ahead of him, it was Earth. He smiled to himself, but it faltered as he realized that he had a lot to do when he landed. He didn't even know how to communicate with them. Do they just talk from a certain distance, like they did? Or did they use gestures? Sounds?

His train of thought was broken when he had noticed that the ship was going down faster than he had thought. His adoptive dad took him on rides like these frequently to the other planets, but even though the landing was rough, it was never fast like this, nor did he ever feel the room's temperature increasing.

"Tony!" Alfred shouted from the room. "Did dad ever teach you how to land?"

Tony gave Alfred a look, but even though he didn't say anything, Alfred knew the answer.

They were going to crash.

How lovely.

When Rose exited the cafe, she looked above to see where the light was coming from, and saw a bright streak falling. Was it a meteorite? She was contemplating whether or not to check it out, and only to reluctantly decide that she would do so.

Alfred wasn't entirely sure of what happened next. Everything was moving too fast, he remembered being hit against the glass, and the ship landing on the water. It had some fuel left over, so Tony managed to get the ship into shore. The two looked at each other, panting heavily as they exited the ship.

"We're alive, Tony!" Tony nodded, and rushed back into the ship, pushing buttons until a bright beam appeared for a few seconds, then dimmed.

"Help is on the way. I'll stay here and make sure nothing is going to go wrong. You explore a bit, but find your way back. If you don't, it's your problem."

Alfred nodded and started to walk through the forest. Not knowing where he was headed, he simply kept walking forward, and then quickly headed back to where the ship landed. "Uh, Tony?" The creature looked up. "Where do I go?"

Tony rolled his eyes and began looking up a map for Alfred.

Rose stopped in her tracks as she looked up in the sky. It was a bright red beam, and it seemed to open up the few clouds in the sky for a few seconds, only to disappear a few seconds later. Was it fireworks? The neighborhood she was in was fairly quiet, minus for Fourth of July, and other holidays when they had decided to buy all of the fireworks and light up the sky with it. There were other events such as birthday parties where sometimes others did light up fireworks.

It was summer, and Fourth of July was only about a month away, so it wasn't that. Maybe it was a birthday party. But then again, fireworks had sparks floating down after they were shot up. If that was the case, then what was it? With all of these questions running in her mind, she almost went into the forest to investigate, but had changed her mind in the end.

It was dark, plus she didn't tell anyone she was going in there. Rose didn't want to risk anything, so she decided that she would investigate tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile, in the ship, Tony and Alfred were looking at a map of the town they were in, for Alfred to know his way around.

The following morning, Rose had woken up before her alarm. She got up and head straight to the bathroom to wash up. The night before, she had trouble sleeping, as she was anxious for the morning to come. She had mixed feeling about the beam.

It might give her a really good inspiration for her stories, but what if it was just full of idiots, flashing lights for no reason? All the negative points she thought of made her want to go less, but she had been pushing herself to go anyways. She would just worry about it later.

When she was actually there.

Rose wasn't the only one with trouble sleeping. In the ship, after Alfred and Tony reviewed the map of the town, the two had gone to sleep. But just like Rose, Alfred was anxious. He knew that before he met someone, they were strangers. But now, he was meeting—what were they called? People, that were, above all, from another planet. He spent a year reading about Earth; maybe pick up a couple of slangs or something so he could look less out of place.

Upon reading the books, he had taken an interest to subjects like math and science, which were very similar to the subjects he was best on in his other school. It was all fascinating to him, their way of numbers, and how two elements can combine to make either great things that would help greatly, or things that were destructive.

Although he found some of their stories interesting, he was still bad at performing it. Like for example, literature. Alfred loved reading it; he was just… not really good at stuff like grammar. Unlike the numbers, words weren't really a universal thing. Even on his home planet, they used roman numerals sometimes, and had the same rules as Earth did like one plus one equals two and such. But_ words_. That confused him. In his planet, everyone spoke relatively the same language, just in a different dialect or accent. But in Earth, everyone used different languages. In his home planet, Alfred took English as an elective, so he hoped that his sister spoke it too, or he would have trouble communicating with her.

And she was the only reason he even came here.

To be honest, Alfred would have liked—no _loved_ to stay back home. The home he was raised in, not born in. He would have gone into apprenticeship in a couple of months, in one of the other districts and would just… not be where he was now. Not like he regretted this trip at all, but he's twenty; at least in human years, and he felt that he was old enough to make wise decisions. So why couldn't he have just stayed at home?

Earlier that morning, Tony gave Alfred a map and told him that he was free to roam and was highly suggested to find his own place, to get used to the environment, he said. If Alfred couldn't do so, he would just simply return back to the ship and continue looking for an apartment the next day. Now, Alfred was in the forest. He had been walking around for about fifteen minutes now. It wasn't because he was lost or anything—no. It was just that he was looking at all the scenery and it just interested him. A lot. For each plant or animal he found, he spent around two minutes looking at them, and when they would run away, he would just continue his walk.

After watching a cricket hop away, Alfred heard some rustling. It might have been a bear, but really; what are the chances of a bear loose in New York? In this small town, most of all? But being curious as he was, Alfred decided to investigate it.

Rose wasn't lost. Lost was being in a place you didn't know of. And she knew this forest. Maddie had invited her out camping along with Elizaveta once. This forest was completely familiar to Rose. She was just… out of track, and if she could, she would find her way to the lake's shore, where they had camped out on.

But for some time now, she felt like she was being watched, like if someone was watching her for some time now and was making plans to grab her and take her away. Luckily, she had informed Maddie that she had plans to go to the forest to find inspiration for her stories. So if she didn't inform her that she was fine by noon, Madeline would promptly call 911.

Alfred on the other hand was completely lost on how to approach the woman in front of him. It wasn't just the fact that he didn't want to scare, her. Well, that too. But it was mostly on how to talk to her. Even back home, Alfred had problems talking to the opposite gender. He didn't stutter or anything, but he didn't know what subject to talk to them about.

He would start with a simple hello, and they would say hello back. So greetings, he could do, even though he was awkward about it. But the conversation? No. After saying hello, either one of them would attempt to say something, but it would quickly die down, then the two would go on their separate ways.

So… how would he do this? He had a sister. Meaning, she was a girl (obviously). But family members he can talk to. It would be awkward, but they would have to get over it, of course.

Alfred looked at the woman walking around again. She had dirty blond hair, braided and passed her shoulders. The woman was wearing a purple blouse, sleeves ending at her elbows, jeans, and brown boots. When she had turned around, Alfred saw her face. Her hair was parted from the left side of her face, she wore glasses and there was something about her eyes that interested Alfred. They were emerald green and on Alfred's home planet, green eyes were rather rare.

From the appearance of the woman, Alfred had concluded something; it was going to be even harder to talk to her. So, Alfred slowly stepped out of his hiding spot and began walking towards her.

"Hello."

For a moment, Rose could have sworn that she had heard footsteps. She turned around to check if someone was there, and turned back around when she had found no one. All was well for a minute or two, until someone spoke to her.

"Hello."

She shouted out of shock. "Who are you and how did I not see you? I just checked to see if anyone was following me a few minutes before—who are you?"

"I'm sorry!" Alfred apologized. "I didn't mean to scare you—I was just looking a way back to the… uh…"

Rose tried to calm herself down as he explained his situation, but clearly, he was having trouble talking. "Town? How? I've never seen you here. And I've been here for five years."

"I'm new here. And I wanted to check out the forest. But what I'm looking for is an apartment."

"And what are you supposed to do if you don't find one by night?"

"I don't know, camp here, I guess."

"How did you get here?"

"A space ship, from another planet. No big deal," Alfred wanted to say, but told himself not to.

"Well?"

"I… uh… walked," Alfred replied. "Five hundred miles. So if I can't find a place to stay here, I'll just have to walk five hundred more."

Rose tried not to chuckle. "You just got that from a song."

"Is it a song?"

Rose would admit to herself that this stranger was pretty attractive. Wheat blond hair, blue eyes, also wearer of glasses, and he was interesting too. But now wasn't a good moment to think of those things. They are in a forest. And he was just following her, or at least that's what she thought he was doing. This was no time for her to be distracted.

"Why are you here?"

"Well, I found out around two years ago that I was adopted, and my foster parents told me that I should find my little sister," Alfred reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small photo of him and his sister. "But I don't know her name or anything. Plus, I'm not really _from here_ if you know what I mean_._"

"Different country? I thought, with you know, your accent, you were American."

"My foster parents… moved back to their home," Alfred explained. Technically, it had been true. "They were on vacation, they found me, and they adopted me."

"Ah."

"Do you know where I can try to figure out where my sister is?"

"Not really. But if you want, I'll try looking up something for you."

Alfred smiled. "Thank you."

For some reason, Rose had decided that Alfred was no predator, and she can trust him. She was a bit wary of his background story, since it had sounded a bit sappier than she would've hoped for. But there was just something about his smile that gave her all the reasons that even though she doesn't completely trust him yet, he was no harm.

" Hey, um, if you don't have a place to stay in, maybe you can stay at my flat?" Rose coughed, realizing how it would lead him on. "There's a guest bedroom, and you can stay there until you can find your own apartment."

"Really?" Alfred's face brightened up. "Thank you. What's your name?"

"Rose. Rose Kirkland."

"Alfred F. Jones," He replied. "If you ask what the F stands for, I don't know, my parents lost that part in the papers."

"And here you go, apartment A36. Let me just go get something for you."

Rose had taken him to her flat afterwards. Apparently, an hour had passed since she had gone on her outing and instead of coming back with inspiration, she came back with a man. It wasn't like she was going to do with him anyways, she was just there to help him out and such. But, there is a chance still standing that he can inspire her, one way or another.

As Rose was looking for her spare key, now Alfred's key, Alfred took the time in observing Rose's apartment. It was small, the dining room, kitchen, and living room all being in one room, but there was a window and porch, opposite of the front door. They were on the third floor, the last door on the floor, and there was an apartment right next to them, apartment B36.

If you came in the room, the kitchen was to your left, and there would be a closet at your right. There was a stove, a sink, and a dish washer, along with the counter in the kitchen. In the middle of it was a round table. After that, there was a small walk space, and then there were two doors. In the middle of it all was a coffee table, completed with a couch and a small TV. Next to the TV was a large book case, and on the other side of the TV was another room.

Rose had gone in to the left door on the west side of the room and came back out with a key. "Here is your key. And the room next to mine is your room."

Alfred walked towards it and opened the door. It was an empty room compared to the room outside filled with furniture. But it wasn't completely empty. There was a bed, a night stand, and a small walk in closet to the left. To the right was another window with a flower. In front of the bed was a small desk accompanied with a chair. While Alfred was taking his time observing his new room, Rose got her computer and placed it in her bag.

"Alright, now that I've given you a tour of my flat, let me take you on a tour of the town," Rose called and opened the front door. "Come on."

Alfred nodded and followed her. Rose was an interesting woman to him. She was very simple about her things, things that one would consider boring. But there was something about her that he could tell that she was more than that.

All they had to do was walk downstairs and go to the cafe down the street. Rose had guided him to the counter and pointed out the menu. "Alright, Alfred, what would you like?"

Alfred stared clueless at the menu. He knew what the words said, but God, what did they mean? "Actually, I've never tried any of these."

Rose chuckled, thinking he was joking. "You're kidding right?" Alfred turned and gave her a blank stare. Rose frowned. He wasn't joking. "Did you live at a temple or something?"

"Not really," Alfred replied. "We just didn't have any of these where we lived. I'd like to try them, though."

Rose nodded. "Hello, Kiku."

"Hello, Rose. And who's this?"

Alfred's head shot up and he waved. "I'm Alfred."

Kiku looked a bit confused, and even though he wanted to question it, he didn't ask. But Rose answered it for him anyways. "He's a friend of mine."

He nodded. "So, your order?"

"My usual, and..." Rose turned around to make a quick glance at Alfred. "A cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll."

Kiku nodded as he jotted down the order. When he finished, he ripped off the paper and placed the small note pad back in the apron's pocket. Kiku had gone to the back and came back about a minute later with a tea cup accompanied by a small plate and a spoon. He then got out a red mug and poured the coffee he had to brew earlier along with some cream and started mixing. When he heard a ding, Kiku went back inside the kitchen and came back with two plates of cinnamon rolls. When he had finished, he placed all of it onto a tray and told the total to Rose, who had paid for it all.

She had settled in her usual spot and set the plate down. While she took the spot for the booth, Alfred sat in the chair facing Rose who was taking her order off the tray. "Alright, these are yours," She handed Alfred the mug of coffee and the cinnamon roll. "Careful, it's hot."

Alfred picked up the mug by the handle and took a sip of it and winced in pain. Rose rolled her eyes. "Told you so."

"It's bitter," Alfred commented.

"So, you add sugar on it," Rose gave Alfred a container of sugar. "Add sugar until the flavor sweet enough for you. Don't forget to mix it."

Alfred nodded and added sugar into the drink and began mixing. "To see if it's sweet enough, take a spoonful and blow on it," Alfred was about to spray the hot coffee everywhere. "_Gently,_" Rose stressed, trying to prevent that mess. Alfred deflated and began blowing on it much more gently than before. "And then take a sample of it."

Alfred sipped the coffee on the spoon and observed the taste. "Do the same, by stirring the coffee and again, blowing on it _gently._"

As he did so, Rose added some sugar to her tea and began stirring. All the while, she stared at Alfred, still not believing that he had never done this before. How old was he anyways? Oh, she had so many questions to ask him, but she didn't want to come off as a source of annoyance to him. When she had noticed that Alfred was just taking a spoonful of the coffee, then drinking it like a spoon, she forced herself not to laugh. "You don't have to do that every time, you know. Just do that when it's still piping hot."

"It's still hot."

Rose sighed and felt the temperature of the mug. "No it isn't, it's fairly warm, and that's how it should be. Oh, and personally, I like eating the roll and I save the drink for whenever I get thirsty while I'm eating."

He nodded and took a bite out of the roll. The two ate in silence as they ate, Rose taking a quick glance at Alfred every now and then. At a moment or two, she felt like Belle teaching the Beast or Jane teaching Tarzan. That's when it hit her. Maybe Alfred was hidden from society or he just lived a life full of limitations. Maybe he had gone to private school, he might have even been home schooled. But seriously, a grown man not knowing how to drink a hot mug of coffee? That seemed unreal, and yet Alfred did so.

When Alfred had finished eating, he got a napkin and wiped off the coffee on his upper lip and the sugar on his hands from the cinnamon roll. So he did know basic manners. "Alfred," Rose spoke up. "You've never had to cool down something hot before?"

Alfred thought about it. At home, they were far more advanced than humans were, something he had learned earlier. Maybe this is one of the things. "Well, at home, everything was served at just the right temperature and we didn't have to do anything about it. This is my first time doing something like this, it's more work, but it seems fun."

"Really?" Rose was intrigued. "Here, people would love to be served food that was at the right temperature. It would be less of a hassle."

"It's really cool if you think about it, and you don't have to do much work," Alfred agreed. "But after a while, you start to feel like you want to do your own stuff in your own way instead of people doing it for you. It's like getting a taste of freedom. I like it."

"What?"

"Freedom," Alfred stated. "I never really got to know what it was. You see, at home, we had rules and laws, and mostly everything was done for us. The only things we had to do for ourselves were school work, getting around, and our attitudes. That's it. Oh, and responsibility too. My parents wanted me to find my sister, but I just wanted to stay there and do what I wanted to do."

"So why did you go and try to find her anyways?"

Alfred shrugged. "I don't know. At the time I just really wanted to stay, but even though my parents told me that they still love me as a son even though I wasn't biologically theirs to begin with; or the fact that everyone was different, made me realize I'm not a part of them. And even though I would love to be one of them, like I thought I was for the most of my life, I would never be. They're awesome people, and I get along with some of them, but I thought it was time that I would stop pretending. And then I looked up about the studying here, and it was similar to the things we had back home, so I was convinced."

Rose was speechless. "So what is it that you wanted to study?"

"Astronomy," He smiled. "And everything that has to do with space, basically."

"Why's that?"

"Well-" Alfred begun but was interrupted when the front door slammed open with a woman rushing to the counter. And Rose immediately frowned. She forgot to call Madeline, didn't she?

"Calm down, dear," A man followed her in and hugged her.

"How can I be calm, Francis?" Maddie jerked from his grasp. "Rose hasn't called me yet and she might be in trouble!"

Francis sighed deeply and pulled out a seat for Maddie. "I'm sure she's fine."

Maddie dropped in the seat and covered her face with her hands and Francis took a seat beside her and began petting her hair. "How do you know?"

"Dear, she's sitting across from you," Francis told her as he kissed her forehead.

Maddie dashed away from her seat and to Rose. "Rose! Are you alright?"

"Yes, yes, I just forgot to call you," She assured her. "I'm sorry."

Francis had walked up to them and had noticed Alfred. "Hello."

Alfred blinked and saw Francis. "Hello."

"Rose, who is this?" Francis asked her, implying Alfred.

"That's Alfred, my-"

"Boyfriend," Rose's face flushed. She just met the guy and he'd already been assuming things?

Francis' eyes rose up. "Really now?"

Alfred nodded. "I'm her friend, and I'm a boy. Boyfriend."

"Ah, a comedian," Francis laughed. "It's about time Rose met someone like that. I'm Francis Bonnefoy."

"Madeline Williams, but call me Maddie," She greeted. Alfred nodded and noticed something about her. She seemed familiar.

"Alfred F. Jones," Francis nodded.

"I believe right now is a good enough moment to tell you that Madeline is taken. By me, specifically," Francis stated.

"People own people?" Alfred asked in bewilderment. What a false advertisement the country's anthem had. Home of the free and brave his ass. He'd thought they had gotten over that, but apparently not.

"No, Alfred, they're dating each other," Rose stated. "Maddie is Francis' girlfriend and Francis is Maddie's boyfriend."

That's when Alfred had realized that he didn't brush up on human cultures as thoroughly as he thought, embarrassing Rose in the process. For the entire conversation, Alfred was either worried that his friendship with Rose was affected or he was making quick glances at Madeline, Francis glaring at him in response.

Maddie and Francis had to leave an hour later, as Maddie had classes to catch and Francis had work to do. Rose and Alfred also departed from the cafe, starting Alfred's tour on the town. The walk was an awkward one, filled with silence between them, Rose still pissed at Alfred for doing that and Alfred not knowing what to say. Well, how was he supposed to know that they weren't forward as they were on his home planet? Not only that but boyfriend _clearly_ states boy that's a friend, it's in the name. God, they were so confusing.

"Rose," Alfred spoke up. "I'm sorry."

"Why the hell would you even say that, Alfred? Just assuming things. I just met you! Above all, I'm letting you stay with me. You can't just say things that aren't even real," Rose fumed. "If I don't know any better, I would assume that you're taking advantage of me."

"I'm not!" Alfred replied defensively. "It's just... at home, we're more forward about things. Plus, it's in the name, isn't it?"

"Yes, but... Alfred," Rose said sternly. "This isn't your home. Or at least, it isn't yet. But- where you come from, from what I've gathered is far, far, far different from here. Here it is preferred if things are more subtle. At least, that's the way I prefer it to be."

The tour had gone off with hardly any hitches. It was less awkward, as Alfred would ask a few questions here and there. The tour around town lasted for two hours, even though it was small, Alfred would ask a lot of questions and then there were breaks here and there. And because Alfred had met a few people in town, they had stopped by and chatted with them. There was Vash, who worked for the police along with the Beildschmidt brothers, Ludwig and Gilbert. Meanwhile Vash's little sister, Lili worked with Ivan, the florist. Isabella, Ludwig's wife and her brother, Lovino worked in their own restaurant. Even though Alfred hadn't met Antonio yet, he was the manager for the supermarket.

By the time they returned to the apartment, it was around four o'clock in the afternoon. They were both tired and Rose had retreated to her room, stating that she wanted to be alone for the rest of the day. By that, Alfred could tell that she was still pissed at him. Alfred, upset, had decided to talk to Tony about this. Grabbing his keys from the desk, he headed out to the front door and made his way to the crash site.

"Tony!" Alfred called out and started knocking on the door. "I need to talk to you!"

The door slid open and Alfred ran inside looking for Tony. In the end, he was found in the main room, playing a game. "Did you find a place to stay?"

"Yes," Tony nodded and turned around to focus on his game. "But it's not about that."

Tony sighed deeply and paused his game again. He stared at Alfred before he made his conclusion. "It's about a girl, isn't it?"

Alfred nodded. Tony rolled his eyes. Of course. "I think I pissed her off."

"Well, fuck it," Tony replied. "It's not like you're gonna see her again."

"Actually, she's letting me stay with her," Alfred told him. Tony groaned and waited for Alfred to tell him the whole story. It lasted about thirty minutes and it took Tony another thirty to think of a plan for Alfred.

"You know how to cook, right?"

For about two hours, Alfred was learning how to cook human meals, only messing up here and there. He had decided to go with something basic as he didn't even know what Rose liked. So he had decided to cook something that mostly everybody liked- fish accompanied with rice. It wasn't that much of a hassle as they had some food stocked up in the fridge, fish being one of them. Alfred used about three of them. The first one had been over cooked, the second one was under cooked, and for the third time, it turned out surprisingly well. The rice was an easy thing to cook, plus it only took him around thirty minutes to make.

As a payment for helping Alfred out, Tony had requested that he would be the one to eat the third fish. He also added that Alfred would have to cook again, but it didn't matter. The fish might have been cold by the time Alfred had prepared everything.

After he had finished his practice cooking, Alfred made his way down to the supermarket. After that, he had gone back to the apartment, when he did, he had noticed that Rose wasn't there. He was worried, but that would mean that he had maybe the right amount of time to cook while she was away. And when she would come back, she would be surprised at the meal, and Alfred's chances of being forgiven would be higher. For an hour, Alfred had cooked the fish and the rice. He was afraid that there wouldn't be a rice cooker, but thankfully, there was one. After he finished, he set down place mats, plates, utensils, with the fish in the middle.

"Alright, just tell me if you see him," Rose groaned as she slipped her phone back into her pocket. Did she really upset Alfred that much?

Around three hours ago, Rose had wanted to apologize to Alfred, but she had noticed that Alfred was nowhere to be found in the apartment. So, she had searched around town, starting at the cafe. She wasn't the usual worry wart, but Alfred wasn't even here for a day, and he might have gotten lost or something. This had caused her to walk around town looking for him or for someone to just tell her where he was so she would stop her worrying. Rose would have searched the forest, but it was getting dark, and she didn't want to risk anything.

Taking out her keys from her pocket, Rose opened the door and had seen the lights open, and a dinner waiting on the dinner table. She felt a tap on her shoulder and almost shouted before she turned around and saw Alfred. Instead of hugging him with joy, Rose slapped his arm.

"Where were you? God, I was so worried!"

Alfred rubbed his arm. "Sorry, I wanted to take a walk, and I didn't expect to be out for that long. I wanted to make up for earlier, so I cooked."

"You can cook?"

"I tried," Alfred replied. Rose blinked and walked over to the table. "I didn't know what you liked, so I just cooked fish and rice."

Rose was about push her seat forward, but Alfred had assisted her in doing so. She took a piece of the fish and tasted it. "Not bad."

Dinner had gone by smoothly and Alfred had even volunteered to wash the dishes. After that, the two had gone to sleep in their respective bedrooms. Next morning, Rose had apologized to Alfred at the cafe. After that, she had offered to help him get used to the town and the apartment. The two would clean it every once and a while, and they would talk about what they wanted to about each other.

During that time, Alfred grew on Rose, and the stories he would tell her gave her bits and pieces of inspiration. Inspiration she had needed for her story. Inspiration she figured she would find in him.

After two weeks of living with Rose, Alfred got a job at the cafe, helping Elizaveta cook. Although, Elizaveta would teach him something here and there. At the end of the second week, Alfred had accompanied Rose on her visit to Francis and Madeline's house. They conversed some more and Alfred had found out that Maddie was a year younger than him and that she had to drive to her university. Francis also added that he would escort her there. Another thing that Alfred had discovered that Francis and Maddie were seven years apart in age, Francis being twenty-six. They had met when Maddie was studying for one of her finals during her freshman year in college, and the two had begun dating a couple months later. Francis and Maddie had also learned that Alfred was adopted and had a "rather sheltered life", as Rose would put it.

When Alfred and Rose had left that evening, Alfred didn't notice that he something slipped out of his pocket, and was left at their house.

The photograph of him and his sister.

It didn't go in the trash, but it did, however fall into Maddie's hands.

"Francis," She called and he rushed over to her.

"Yes, my love?"

"I think... I think Alfred's my brother."

_To be continued..._


	2. Part Two

**ET**

_It was a chance encounter, really. She needed inspiration. He needed his facts. US/fem!UK for the USxUK-Club's Double Contest, written for the fanfiction category._

**Warning: **A small paragraph of sex. Really undetailed enough for me not to put this in the M-rated category.

**Part Two;**_ Duration_

Two days had passed since Rose and Alfred had visited Maddie and Francis. When Alfred was cooking an order for the café, he stopped a moment and felt his back pocket emptier than it was before. He stopped mincing the onions and checked his back pocket to see if the photograph was there.

But it wasn't.

He muttered some words under his breath. Elizaveta looked over her shoulder as she was putting cake batter in the oven. "What's wrong, Alfred?"

"I lost something."

"Oh dear," Elizaveta frowned as she off the oven mittens. "Was it valuable?"

"Yes," Alfred sighed deeply, grabbed the minced onions and placed it in the pot for the soup. "It was a picture of me and my sister. And if I don't find it, it'll be even harder to find her."

"I'm sorry, Alfred," She patted his back.

Alfred was about to respond before they heard the sound of a woman's voice at the front. "Rose, have you seen Alfred?"'

Rose looked over from her computer. "Yes, why?"

"I need to talk to him," Alfred walked out of the kitchen and tapped on Maddie's shoulder.

"You called?" Maddie nodded and took out the photograph. Alfred's eyes lit up when he saw it. "There it is! Thanks Maddie."

"So, this is yours?" Maddie asked.

"Yeah, that's me," He pointed to the little boy. Then he pointed to the little girl. "And that's my little sister."

"Do you know her name?"

Alfred shook his head. "No, I'm trying to find her, though. Why?"

Maddie went through her bag, took out her wallet and a picture from it. It was a different picture, but it had the same two kids in the picture. "I think you're my brother."

A week had passed, and by the end of the week Alfred told the news to Tony, who even though it seemed that he could've cared less, was actually pretty happy for Alfred. During that week, Madeline and Alfred went to the hospital to check if they really were related. The results had been given to them earlier than expected, but in the end, it was proven positive that they were in fact related.

The two were bonding and sharing stories, for a while, but surprisingly, Maddie was contributing more to the conversation than Alfred. At least, detail-wise. When Alfred was asked by her to explain what it was like for him, he told the true events, but changed some of the details. Like saying that he flew a plane instead of a space ship when he was little.

On the day of Maddie's birthday, everyone had celebrated both her twentieth birthday and the discovery of her and Alfred being siblings. It was rather big, but it wasn't as loud as Alfred's twenty-first birthday three days later. The only reason it had been rowdier than Maddie's was that it was also the Fourth of July. Antonio and Francis were about to light up the first firework until they heard police sirens. But when they saw that it was just Gilbert and Ludwig, relief swept over them and they proceed to light up the fireworks before Gilbert stopped them by shooting a bullet right next to them. The two had moved away from the fireworks and let Gilbert light the fireworks.

That's when the party had really begun. As it turned out, Gilbert and Antonio were the entertainment for the night. It was mentioned earlier by Rose that the party didn't really start until two out of three of the trio were hammered. It was proven right when the two had started dancing on the tables, singing along to the song played. Their words were slurred, and their singing was terrible, but if it wasn't it wouldn't be much of an entertainment. Francis, was far too busy recording his two friends and Maddie, who unlike Francis and the half the people at the party, was perfectly sober and was helping Francis hold the camera.

Rose, who only drank five glasses of whiskey was already drunk enough to be assisted by Alfred. He had decided that Rose should go home before she ended up embarrassing herself like Antonio and Gilbert did. At first, she refused to be the reason why the "man of the party" left earlier than he should have. Thankfully, the Fourth of July part wasn't held at their tiny apartment, but at Francis' and Maddie's house.

Alfred had wanted to help clean up after the party, but Maddie insisted on letting him take Rose home. She stated that there were still enough people sober enough to help clean up. Plus, there were still a couple of people who were able to record Gilbert and Antonio.

"I'm sober enough to walk on my own, Alfred, you can let go of me," Rose informed him. Alfred rolled his eyes and allowed Rose to walk, but when she started to walk on her own, she stumbled a bit and Alfred managed to catch her before she ate the sidewalk.

"Alright, hold on; let's lie down a bit, okay?" Alfred helped her lie on the grass in front of their apartment building.

"This isn't our flat, Alfred," Rose informed him as Alfred lied down on the space next to her.

"Are you sober enough to comprehend what I'm saying?" Alfred asked her.

Rose groaned. "I don't know, but don't speak too loud, okay?"

Alfred grinned and pointed up at the sky. "You see that?"

Rose adjusted her glasses and squinted hey eyes. "That little dot of light?"

"I think it's a planet, or one of the planet's moons," Alfred told her. "Usually, it would be really dim, but I think there's something there that just makes it… shine like that."

"I would ask you if you could explain the concept of space to me, but I think I'm too drunk to concentrate," Rose chuckled. "But, can you explain to me what got you so interested in space?"

"Dad worked with stuff like that a lot. He would point me the stars and planets, and explain to me how it was like in there," Alfred explained. "I would explain it to you, but you seem like all you want to do is sleep."

"I'm sorry," Rose mumbled. "But I don't mind you explaining it to me tomorrow."'

After that, Alfred had taken the liberty to carry Rose upstairs and into her bedroom, where he set her down on the bed and tucked her in. He unbraided her hair and set her glasses on the table beside the bed. After that, he went to his own room and went to sleep.

The following morning, Alfred had gotten up early and made breakfast for him and Rose. When Rose had woken up, she thanked him for the meal, and Alfred had fulfilled his promise by explaining everything he knew about space and the stars. He also said that we would show Rose the constellations, but he needed a telescope for it.

A week later, there was a box found on Alfred's bed after he returned from work. And Rose had told him to open it, also adding in that it was from her. When Alfred had opened it up, it was a telescope. He took it outside and had begun assembling it, Rose assisting him as he did. When he had finished, he would look into the telescope, adjust it a bit, let Rose see what it was, and he would explain to her what it was. After a while, it had become a routine for them and they enjoyed every bit of it.

Rose admired Alfred's knowledge on space and how he was so focused on the subject as he talked to her about it. He explained it with such enthusiasm, and would even joke around here or there. Alfred would stare at Rose's reactions as he told her about it all. A similar thing had happened with Rose and her writings.

One day, Alfred passed by her typing away on her computer, and right next to her was a cup of tea and a note pad filled with words that were either scratched out or remained as they were. He asked what she was doing and she explained that she was writing a story, but she had no inspiration. That was when Alfred told her about the stories he used to hear when he was a little kid. Now with Alfred explaining to Rose about space, Rose had gained inspiration for her story. It was just a concept so far, but Alfred had helped her with it.

During all of this, was when Alfred had realized something. He had fallen in love with Rose; her quirks, her actions, her way of writing. Everything about her interested him and he would get distracted by her every now and then. At first, he thought it was just the admiration he had for her, but when he had realized that he had forgotten all about wanting to go back home and start his studies, and that he really didn't mind staying in Earth because of the new friends he had made, how his sister was there, and most of all, of how Rose was there. That's when he knew it. He had fallen in love with her.

With that, he didn't want to lie to her anymore. He wanted to tell her the truth. How he wasn't raised in Earth, how he was actually raised in another planet, probably a couple galaxies away. That even though he wasn't telling her the whole truth that he still cared for her. It was such a big risk for him and their relationship.

But hey, you can't really blame the man. You do the stupidest things when you're in love.

First of all, Alfred had talked to Tony about what he was going to do. At first, Tony was yelling at Alfred, and constantly asked if he was ill, if he was drugged, or if he was just plain stupid. Alfred had stated that he wasn't either of those options and that he just didn't want to live another life full of lies as he did before.

"But that's the point! You're supposed to leave your previous life behind! And you're gonna ruin it by telling her," Tony explained.

"Rose wouldn't do that, Tony," He said.

"It's either she tells the world and ruins it or she's going to leave you," He stated. "If she accepts it, then you just received a miracle."

Because of Tony's words, Alfred had delayed his confession for two weeks. He would bring up a conversation, but he would always change the subject. Rose had noticed it, but just ignored Alfred's stuttering and the change of his tone whenever he completed his sentence. Every time Alfred would bring it up, the conversation would always go something like this,

"Hey! Good morning! Guess what?"

Rose would grin and ask, "What?"

Then Alfred was about to reply with full confidence. "I-" Wasn't born from here! He would want to say, but was always prevented from saying so. He would pause to think of something to say, most of the time it being completely random. "Like the weather today!"

Rose would look at him as if she wanted him to say something else, but instead she would just nod and go along with the conversation. "Better than the weather in England, it's always raining there."

And so, the conversation would go on and end when they went down to the café down the street for Alfred to do his job, and for Rose to work on her stories. In the end, neither got what they wanted, or had said what they wanted.

"And here's your..." Alfred paused to think as he set the drink next to her computer. Rose clicked the screen a few times. "...5th order of tea."

When she was done, Rose looked up and smiled. Alfred however, noticed the lights change and slid in the booth next to her. He looked at the screen, Microsoft Word opened up, and then at Rose, who was giving him the look. "Yes, Alfred?"

"You just changed the screen."

"Did not," Rose replied. "As you can see, no other windows are opened."

"You closed it."

"You don't have any proof," Alfred laughed and stared at her. Rose tapped her fingers on the table and tapping her leg before she sighed deeply. She clicked on the start button and looked up a program. Pinball.

"Don't you only use like... three keys for that?"

"Yes, but I got Kiku to help me out with the programming so that it can look like I'm typing."

"Isn't that more complicated?"

"Don't you have work?"

Alfred frowned and walked over to Kiku to chat with him. He came back with a wide grin and sat back down to Rose. "I am now a free man. Alright, what were you working on?"

Rose sighed deeply and opened up a program. "This is a computer game. The objective of the game is to help the character in it solve the mystery. And you've seen me typing because that's how you get through the game, instead of you know, clicking the mouse. Do you want to try?"

"Later," Alfred said. "Why aren't you working on your story?"

"Like I have said for the past couple of months, I'm stuck. I have an idea for it, but I don't know where to go from there. This is what we call writer's block," Rose explained. "And I have it bad."

Alfred looked concerned. "Is it curable?"

"With inspiration and motivation, yes," Rose laughed. "But I have none of those."

"What's your idea?"

"A good plot with decent characters," She told him. "Oh, and the theme is science fiction."

"Well, there's categories that goes in science fiction," Alfred got a napkin from the table and took his pen out from his apron's pocket. As he listed the categories, he called them out loud. "Time travel, powers, the paranormal maybe, some scientific stuff-"

"Really Alfred?" Rose gestured quotation marks with her hand. "Some scientific stuff."

"Shh," Alfred tapped his pen on the napkin. "What else?"

"Space?" Alfred shook, but just nodded his head and jotted the idea down. This reminded him, he has to tell her somehow. Maybe tonight. After a few more minutes of ideas being thought of and written on a piece of paper, Alfred had gone to work and Rose continued to write. Just before Alfred went back to work, he sat down again.

"Hey, are you free tonight?" He asked.

Rose blinked. "This coming from the person who told me that I should just write until I drop? Alright, what are your plans?"

"I wanna show you something," Alfred grinned as he stepped away from her corner, making his way back in the kitchen, only backwards. "What date is it?"

"It's the..." Rose went to her home screen and checked the calendar. As she was doing so, Alfred bumped into some chairs, causing Rose to stand up to check on him. Alfred shrugged it off and stood up, continuing his way to the kitchen. Rose sat back down and checked the date. "Eighteenth of July."

Alfred saluted and then pointed at Rose as he opened the door for the kitchen. "I hope you can be a night owl for today, show's at midnight."

When Alfred had stepped back in the kitchen, she felt her cheeks burning slightly and when she looked up, she saw Kiku give her the thumbs off accompanied with a smile. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Elizaveta, who saw it all from her spot in front of the oven, patted Alfred's back. The two were momentarily satisfied. Alfred would get the chance to tell Rose who he really is, Rose would most likely get an idea or two from the event, but most of all, the two would get what they wanted, but have never admitted to themselves.

A date with each other.

Alfred had gone to Tony again before he would tell Rose. Tony was freaking out all while throwing pillows, books, and then writing materials at Alfred. He was also shouting at him as soon as he heard, "Rose", "tell", "I'm going to", together. Most of all of how, "Help me maybe?" Was in there too. Sometimes, Tony had questioned why he hadn't told Alfred that he was to stay in the space ship unless it had to do something with his sister, and if it involved Rose at all, he would not go.

"Alfred," Tony had said. "Don't be a fucking limey."

"Please Tony," Alfred begged. "Come on."

"Why do you want to tell her the truth anyways?"

"I don't know," Alfred sighed deeply and sat on the couch. "When I first met her, I thought the only thing I can do was to lie to her. So that she would accept me somehow. Now, after getting to know her, I don't want to lie to her anymore, Tony. I think I love her."

Tony scoffed. Alfred was getting far too involved with humans. He thinks? He laughed at that. "Why do you say you _think _you love her? If you did, you shouldn't question it."

"Because Tony, I'm not sure. I'm her friend, but..."

After a couple more minutes of talking, Tony had reluctantly agreed to Alfred's shenanigans, adding in that even though he was a part of this plan, he was not to take any blame at all, also saying that everything that Alfred was doing was his problem, not Tony's. Alfred did not mind this arrangement.

"Rose, are you ready?"

"Almost!" When she went out of the room, she dressed in the way Alfred had told her to dress. He said that they would be outside, so she dressed up casually, so she did. Rose wore a t-shirt from the university she went to, jeans, and of course, her boots. Alfred wore a plaid dress shirt, unbuttoned and sleeves rolled up, with a black shirt underneath; he also wore jeans and a pair of sneakers.

Rose had asked where they were going for the night, but Alfred had told her that it was a surprise. It took a while for her to figure it out, but when he had led her into the woods, she figured that they would have a picnic or something by the lake. It was eleven in the evening, and Rose was still wide awake. She wasn't sure if it either by her excitement or by the fact that she had spent late nights into her previous stories.

When they got to the lake, it was practically clear of anything with the exception of a blanket, a radio, and a picnic basket right next to it. The shore was clean; every piece of trash picked up, and with the help of Tony, the space ship was hidden by vines of the trees. After living with Rose for about two months, he had gathered the information of what all her favorites are. Her favorite dish was fish fillet, her choice of drink was whiskey, she favored the band Coldplay, and she was an avid reader of J.K. Rowling's books.

The two had spent the next hour eating the meal Alfred had cooked earlier, apparently, he had cooked it on his last shift, and he had cleaned up the beach on his next break. Other than that, they were chatting about all sorts of things; childhood, past memories, things like that. The music was played quietly in the background, and apparently, there were candles surrounding the blanket to shed some light. Rose had also noticed that there was a small rowboat next to where they sat. When they were done eating, Alfred assisted Rose on to the boat. After he had done so, he pushed it on the water and jumped in before it left the shore. The two had gotten a bit wet because of this, causing Rose to splash some water on Alfred, him doing the same.

After some rowing, Alfred had gotten the oars and started rowing them to the center of the lake. There was a lantern in the middle of the row boat, and it helped them see where they were going. Alfred had checked his watch once again and had reached over to turn the lantern off. Rose saw this and had stopped him, asking what he was doing. Alfred looked up and smiled as he turned the lantern off.

For a few moments, everything was pitch black, minus for the sky and some of the moon. Rose was a bit worried about this, but she found some sort of comfort when Alfred held her hand lightly. Then slowly, there were lights on the lake. Not by fire flies, candles, or flash lights, but it surrounded the air. As if they had their own Aurora Borealis on the lake. Rose was looking around her as she was, there were more lights, and the lake was getting brighter. Alfred smiled at her amazement as he got a bouquet of roses from behind his seat and gave it to Rose when she was finished looking around the lake. She smiled at him. When the lights had faded, Alfred turned the lantern off and rowed them back to shore.

"That was amazing, Alfred," Rose said. "How did you do that?"

"It's the _Accendo Lux,_" He said. "It happens sometime during the middle of the year in certain places. But where I came from, it happens at the beginning, middle, and end of each season. But it's even better during the middle of summer and winter."

Rose nodded. "Did you live you know," She pointed up. "Up there?" Alfred seemed surprised at first, and Rose chuckled. "Alfred, you living in Alaska shouldn't be that big of a deal."

Alfred sighed deeply and shook his head. "Farther."

"The Artic?" She asked. "I thought you had to be a scientist to go there but... I guess they made an exception?"

"Farther," He repeated.

Rose blinked. "Alfred," She laughed. "You can't go any farther than the Artic, what are you-"

Alfred looked up and turned from his spot as if he was searching for something. When he found it, he tapped on Rose's shoulder and pointed to a dim blue star. Rose squinted her eyes and looked up. As soon as Alfred had pointed up, Rose had known what he meant. Now, she had realized that he had lied to her about most of the things they were talking about. Now, Alfred was just a complete stranger to her.

She would have been more understanding about it, but just the thought of her friend- no, best friend lying to her about most of his life was just not good. At all. Was he serious, or was he just simply insane? Rose didn't want to know. Not anymore.

"I have to go," Rose said as she walked away from Alfred.

"No, wait, Rose!" Alfred ran to her side.

"Alfred, no," She pushed him away from her. "I don't want to hear any of this. If you're saying you're from another planet, then you might as well have been lying about everything else. And you have gotten to know me; I hate it when people do that to me."

"Then how did you explain the blood tests with me and Maddie? I've read about this planet, you can't exactly copy DNA, Rose," Alfred explained. "Look, I may have lied to you in the beginning, but I don't want to lie to you anymore. The reason why I did this wasn't for you to soften up to me telling you the truth, I know you, and you don't exactly do that. The real reason why I did this was for you to have one last good memory of me before I told you, and you would start to hate me for not telling you."

Rose took a deep breath, and was about to say something before she had walked away. After that, Tony had offered to let Alfred stay in the ship, but he had refused. For the night, Alfred had lied down on the blanket, looking up at the sky, and staring at the star.

The feeling of wanting to go back home had returned.

Rose wasn't sure what to do now.

Alfred was probably pissed at her more than she was with him, or didn't even want to talk to her anymore. She didn't even let him explain more of his side of the story. Or even, his side at all. She just assumed the worst and left. As usual. She wanted to talk to him now; now that she was calm, she could talk to him, but she can't anymore. She had left him there by himself, but then again, he might have already left the planet already. This had surprised her. She already believed in his story, even though she didn't even know all of it. Maybe some part of her did want to believe him, but at the time, she just refused to do so.

When the following morning rolled around, Rose had washed up and made her way to the lake again. Maybe she would find him and she could apologize for not listening to him. She had luckily no troubles walking to the lake. When she had gotten there, she had noticed the same blanket rolled around and had blonde hair sticking out of it. Rose sighed and walked over to the blanket. After she bent over and sat down next to it, she shook Alfred's shoulders.

"Alfred..." she mumbled. God, she felt really bad right now. "Alfred, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't listen to you when you were trying to tell me something. I can understand if you don't want to talk to me now, or ever at all, actually. But if you want to talk to me again, I'll be in the same place."

"Why did you just leave?" He asked under the blanket before he took it off. "I thought you would be more understanding than that Rose, that's why I wanted to tell you in the first place. I knew you would be pissed off about me, but..."

"Alfred, I wasn't only mad, I was scared," Rose explained. "I thought that you would do something horrible to me, that you wouldn't be the person I got really close to. If it makes up for anything, I guess I haven't told you everything about me either. And you're the first person I've told this to. Francis and Maddie have thankfully not told anyone else. When I was in college, I was a bit... wilder. I had short hair, and I had red streaks in my hair, and acted like the little punk I wasn't. It was fun, but I gave it up for some reason. Although, I did keep a tattoo."

Alfred shot up from the blanket and stared at Rose. "You're kidding, right?"

Rose chuckled and shook her head. She took off her boots and panty hose to show the tattoo of roses and vines on her leg. "Why do you think that I either wear A, jeans, or B, panty hose? Let me tell you something, hiding this thing isn't easy. It was rather expensive too, so I didn't get it colored."

"Why don't you just get it removed?" Alfred asked.

"Even though I have to hide it, I like it. Plus, it's like a memory and a reminder," Rose explained. "Good memory because I had fun times, and a reminder telling me that if I ever het a tattoo again, it would be somewhere easier to hide and smaller."

Alfred laughed. "Is that all of it?"

"No, I've got plenty more stories to share but," She put her panty hose back on. "You have to promise to never tell anyone anything I tell you. And," She laced her boots. "You have to share some of your stories too."

For the rest of the day, the two were sharing stories of their lives. For Alfred, it was mostly about his childhood, and for Rose, it was mostly about her college life. Their stories being detailed and most of them being long, the story telling had lasted until it was late afternoon. Out of all of them, the most entertaining one for Alfred was of how he and Tony had snuck into their dad's space car and had accidentally started it up. It had eventually led to them having the worst grounding ever.

"Literally, we had to walk or use land transportations to get around, and everything was so far apart from each other, so if we came in late in school, we would get piled with homework," He had explained.

For Rose, it was of how she got the tattoo on her leg. It was when she was a sophomore, and she had gone out with her group of friends at that time and she got drunk enough for her to get a tattoo that big. In the morning, most of her right leg had been sore from the needle, and even though she had loved the tattoo afterwards, what upset her most was the price for it. But that wasn't the entertaining part. Apparently, as far as she could remember, she was wearing a short and tight skirt at that time, so the guy doing the tattoo on her leg would peek every now and then. When he was finished with the tattoo, she kicked the guy with her left leg, and she had help getting away.

This was amusing to Alfred, but he felt some sort of jealousy after she had told him her story.

"If you don't mind Alfred, would you give me visible proof that you're not from here?" Rose asked.

Alfred thought about it. "Promise you wouldn't leave like you did."

"I promise over all of my panty hoses and jeans," Rose nodded.

Alfred smiled and helped her up. They had walked on the shore, all the way to the other side where the space ship was. When they got in, Alfred expected to hear all sorts of screaming from Tony. Because of that, they snuck around the ship. Instead of taking Rose to the control room, he had led her to the main room and opened up a map of his planet. For two hours, they were in the room, with Alfred explaining to Rose every little bit of his home, even showing her some pictures of his achievements.

This was up until Tony had caught them and started yelling at them. Alfred took Rose's hand and they began running out of the space ship, laughing. When they entered the woods, and confirmed they were far enough for Tony not to catch them, they stopped and were out of breath. Even so, they were still laughing it all off. For a while, they just stood there, leaning against the trees for support as they caught their breath. When they had, the two had begun walking back to their flat.

When they stood in front of their room, Alfred had stopped Rose from opening the door. "I forgot to tell you something."

"What is it?"

"It might be a little bit awkward though."

Rose crossed her arms after pointing at her right leg as she gave him the look. "No, what was awkward was me taking off my panty hose right in front of you. Trust me, we'll be even."

Alfred began caressing Rose's cheek. She held his hand as he did and when their faces were only an inch away from each other, he had said it. "I love you, Rose."

After that, as if right on cue, the two had started kissing each other, first on the lips, then Rose had begun kissing his neck, causing him to bend down a bit against the door; she then grazed her teeth above his Adam's apple. She stopped for a moment and reached inside her pockets for her keys and opened the door. "Inside."

Locking the door behind them, they had stopped again. Alfred looked at her. "I'm sorry, I probably won't be good."

Rose shook her head. "No, it's okay," She said as she kissed his nose.

"My room or yours?"

"To be honest, I wouldn't mind if we did it on the couch. Just let me get a blanket so I won't have to clean the entire couch," When Rose had returned, Alfred had helped her cover the couch with it. Soon after that, they had begun kissing each other again, but more intense. It had eventually led to them stripping each other of their clothes, caressing each other, kissing each other everywhere. Rose's hair was unbraided by Alfred as soon as they got on the couch and when they had finished, her hair was messier than ever. Alfred was indeed, inexperienced, Rose was not. In turn, she had lead most of the way, telling Alfred what to do when he had asked.

When they had finished, they were out of breath again. They had slept on the couch, Rose on top of Alfred, who held her close, as the blanket wrapped around them. Before sleeping, Rose kissed his lips and smiled as she adjusted her head to the crook of Alfred's neck.

"I love you too."

For the next couple of weeks the two had been adjusting as a couple, Alfred then moving into Rose's room as she had the bigger bed. At the moment, his stuff was still in the other room, and that was only because there wasn't any room in Rose's room. It took a while for people to find about them, but when they did, they had been happy for the pair. Rose's story had progressed more each day, and when the second week of August rolled around, she was already in seven out of her planned thirty or more chapters, Alfred helping out every step of the way. During that time, Rose had met Tony, who had stood his ground and had still disliked her. But after having a few chats with her, he still disliked her. Just not as much, though.

The two were happy. It would seem like the perfect way to end a story that started out and had gone the way theirs did. Alfred had adjusted to Earth, found his sister, got most of his facts and was still collecting more, and as a bonus, he fell in love. Rose got her inspiration, motivation, and Alfred too. They had gotten what they had wanted and then some more. But, remember, there _are_ other factors in this story such as Tony's situation. Also, there's the fact of even though something's happening on the other side of the country, it does not mean it couldn't affect you.

"Ivan, this is Eduard, can you please pick up already?"

"Eduard, why don't you just give up? Ivan quit four years ago after that incident, he's not coming back," Toris sighed as he poured coffee into Eduard's mug. He looked over at Raivis, who had declined the offer of coffee. Toris shrugged and set down their usual breakfast meals.

"You know him, Toris, he won't give up on this case," Raivis sighed as he started to eat his meal.

"_Privet, _Ivan!" Eduard greeted, and had turned around and mouthed, 'He's not gonna pick up you said.''

"Hello, Eduard," Ivan greeted. "What brings you to call me today? I'm rather busy right now with the flower shop. Lili, will you please work the cashier? I'm on the phone."

Lili nodded and went to the cashier. Eduard, who had been calling a couple time zones away as he was currently in Arizona right now along with Toris and Raivis. "Ivan, about three to four months ago, we picked up a message about someone calling about a red beam. And about a month ago, we were called that the same some strange lights near the lake. Did you notice anything?"

Ivan frowned. "Eduard, I thought I already went through this with you. I am not working for this company anymore. I quit three years ago, and I'm never returning. Good day."

The line was dead afterwards and Eduard sighed in frustration. He was just going to have to go in there to see for himself.

_To Be Continued..._

_*****__Accendo Lux_; "Illuminated Lights" Accendo meaning illuminate, lux meaning 'light'. Sorry, but I'm really bad at naming things like that :\


	3. Part Three

**ET**

_It was a chance encounter, really. She needed inspiration. He needed his facts. US/fem!UK for the USxUK-Club's Double Contest, written for the fanfiction category._

**Part Three **_Departure_

It had now been four months since Alfred had arrived on earth. During those four months, he had crash landed into the lake, met Rose, met new friends, met his sister, had fallen in love with Rose, told her almost everything about him while she did the same to him, and now, it was a month after they had begun dating. They were obviously happy with each other, and Tony had eventually had come to accept them together, but he still grows wary of the pair. Even so, Alfred was still living with Rose in their apartment, 36A, keeping her company, and in some ways, giving her ideas for stories.

One day, three men moved in next door in apartment 36B. They were rather quiet, so Alfred and Rose didn't mind them at all. But, when they did hear them talk, they had accents. Rose couldn't identify specific accents, but they were recognizable as European accents. There was a tall blonde with glasses, a medium-sized one with longer light brown hair, and one short one with messy brown hair. They didn't speak to each other much, but whenever they had saw them out in the hall, or had run into them somewhere in town, it seemed like the man with glasses was always pushing the other two to do something, the shortest one was nervous for most of the time, and the man with the long hair seemed to be the one keeping them together even though he wasn't even doing much.

Rose had noticed that the trio or at least the man with the glasses was making glances at everyone, as if they were observing them. Other than that, they rode the elevator most of the time; they also wore suits a lot even though it was summer. But then again, they might have just resided here because the rent was cheaper, plus, they could just take the subway or a taxi to get to the city. Even so, it had caused Rose to look up alien related searches.

Alfred was clearly human. As he had said, when he was little, he was just playing outside, some things happened, then he was rescued by his foster parents. As simple as that. Alfred should be a born American citizen, but his records were yet to be found. To this date, Alfred and Maddie had gone into town every week to keep track of the progress of finding Alfred's records. They offered to help to speed up the process, but were denied because the other files would be confidential too.

Whenever she could without Alfred noticing, she looked up information on mostly anything alien related. Even though Alfred was not an alien, there was still a fact that he was basically harboring one in the woods. There wasn't actually any proof, but hey, it's not like they were trying to prove anything, to anyone, right? Rose would have been more public on her researching, but one, Alfred would tell her not to worry; two, she didn't want to worry him; three, he would tell her to write on her story. Apparently, on her research, these alien hunters located the aliens who were mixed in the human domestic life through elevators. There were more details on it, but Rose ignored all the other facts and focused on the major points: elevator, locate, alien. 'Capture and retrieve' weren't on that description, but she was sure that it had some subtext on that matter.

"Are you ready?" Alfred asked as he emerged from Rose's no- _their _room. It's been their room for the past month, and he still couldn't believe it.

Rose zipped her laptop bag close as she nodded. She stood up, and Alfred rushed over to push in her chair for her. Rose formed a small smile as he did this. This was one of the reasons she fell for him; he was sweet, he had helped her through many things, he was open with her, and she felt so comfortable being around him. It was as if they had known each other for years instead of mere months.

When they had exited the apartment, Rose had locked the door as the three men made their way to the elevator. When they were walking down the hall, the one with shoulder-length brown hair smiled. "Are you going down?"

Rose looked up and shook her head. "Thank you, but we'll just take the stairs."

The man nodded as the blond with glasses sighed impatiently and pressed the 'door close' button.

"What was that, Toris?"

Toris rolled his eyes and remained at his spot. He remembered when Eduard wasn't so prissy all the time. When Eduard first came into the agency, he was a generally happy man who loved to work with the computers. He had loved the challenge of working with the higher advanced computers and had helped translating some alien languages by simply relating them to computer coding. Eduard, like with Toris and Raivis, had worked under the care of Ivan, their former leader of their group. A couple years after being in the agency, Toris had remembered Eduard constantly talking about this girl he had met while on the job. She wasn't a part of the mission; rather, he had met her on his way to the mission.

He had remembered Eduard telling him the story in full detail. Eduard was on his way to one of their missions a couple years back, and he had to wait for the train to come as he had missed one already. While at the train station, he had met this woman named Yekaterina, but she had said that she didn't mind being called Katerina or Kat. She had platinum blonde hair, in a pixie-cut hair style, accompanied with a head band on her forehead. She had a rather big bust, but that wasn't what Eduard had noticed. It was her kindness and her way of speaking. And he hadn't met or had spoken to a person with that peaceful sounding tone for a while. She had fascinated him greatly in their conversations, but then, her train had arrived. Luckily, before forgetting and then later regretting it all, Eduard had caught her name and phone number.

On the mission, Eduard was on the brink of dying, having no will to move any more. He had been trapped in a warehouse, left for dead, but after an hour of self-pity, he had remembered what had happened before. The girl. Katerina. Then suddenly, he regained all will to move and strength to get out of the ware house. And it was all because of her. So in a way, she had saved his life. A bit cliché, but Eduard didn't mind at all because as soon as he called for help, right after, he had called Katerina and scheduled a date whenever they were free.

After that, they had begun dating, then Eduard had found out she was related to Ivan. He wasn't _that _angry. Eduard had been telling him about a girl, and Ivan didn't notice that the girl was his sister. And because he heard nothing but good things from Eduard about his sister, he had no choice but to approve of their relationship. Ivan at the time had a fiancée. She was a Chinese woman named Wang Yu-An. She taught a class on hand-to-hand combat and a tai-chi class. Yu-An had sparked Ivan's interest greatly, so he had decided to sign up for both of her classes. After a while, they had started dating, and then became engaged. Even so, Yu-An never found out about Ivan's job.

When she did, she had accepted his job, and had sworn to secrecy. But things seemed just wanted to end band for the couple, the same for Eduard and Katerina. Long story short, their loved ones had mixed into their jobs, Yu-An had fallen into a coma, and as for Katerina, she had either gone missing, had been dead, or was abducted. The two mourned for their misfortune, then Ivan eventually quit, moving to a small town in New York, as for Eduard, he dug himself in the job and swore he wouldn't rest until he knew what happened to Katerina.

And this is where they were now. The three were in a quieter location on the island of Manhattan, assumed as visiting Ivan, but in reality, Eduard was just here to check on the calls and he had the ability to pester Ivan, asking him questions the man would hang him up on the phone for.

One more time before the three exited the building, Toris made a quick glance at Eduard, who instead of impatiently tapping his feet, fussing about timing, or had crossed his arms due to anger, he was holding the photograph of Katerina. Toris looked away before Eduard noticed.

He just needed some closure to move on.

"Hey Rose," Alfred began. "Why did we take the stairs?"

"Well," Rose tried to find an excuse. "I heard while on your trips to the city, Maddie's been taking you out to McDonald's."

Alfred snorted. He laughed nervously. "Psh, who told you that?"

"I was bluffing," Alfred sighed in relief before Rose continued. "That, and I found a McDonald's wrapper lying around."

"But it's so good! We didn't have stuff like that back home. It's too fattening they said, it's going to give you a heart attack they said. But have they ever tried it? I don't think so!"

She chuckled. "It's if you eat too much of it, love. It's fine if you eat it, but not too much."

Alfred scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah, I guess."

As she was walking, she boosted her height by the tip of her toes for a few inches and kissed Alfred's cheek and wrapped an arm around his waist. "I still love you dear."

Alfred smiled and kissed Rose's forehead before giving her a big bear hug. "Aw, Rose! Not in public!" Rose squirmed in his hug as she tried to pry herself from him.

"I could say the same thing to you!"

Alfred chuckled as he placed her back down on the ground, but even so, they walked the rest of the way to the cafe, holding each other's hands.

Across town, Eduard knocked on a glass door. As he waited, he, along with Raivis and Toris observed the outside of the building. It had the sign of 'Ivan and Lili's Garden', a sign that had needed its retouches. Speaking of retouches, the paint outside looked as if it had to be painted again. There were some crates outside right in front of the building's windows. From it, he could see that the inside had wooden floors with shelves filled up with things like fertilizer on the right. On the left were books, most likely plant based. That took two shelves to fill. Between in had a table with pamphlets also plant based and business cards either referring to them or advertising others. Next to the counter was a door, most likely leading to the garden outside.

It took a while for the door to be answered, so he checked the sign. The sign said open and they had arrived on store hours. Eduard looked at his feet and saw the welcome mat, to which he scoffed at since the door wasn't being answered. He was about to knock again before Toris sighed deeply as he pushed Eduard gently aside and pulled the door open.

"We aren't in the agency right now," Toris reminded him. "Stores are like this in the outside world, remember?"

Eduard rolled his eyes and walked in along with Raivis. Toris was the last to get in as he held the door for the two. He looked around the store and saw that everything was placed like how he had seen it outside. He walked over to the counter and read the paper next to the button.

_'Please ring for service.'_

So he pressed the button. It took a while for someone to answer, but when they did, it was the wasn't the person they had expected to see. "Hello," The girl greeted them. She had short blonde hair, a ribbon tied in it. "I'm Lily Vogel, how may I help you?"

Before Eduard was to speak, Toris had interrupted him. "We would like to speak with Ivan, please."

Lili blinked before she nodded and went out the door again. Eduard glared at Toris. "Why do you always do that?"

"You don't want to scare her, Eduard, now do you?" Toris replied. "Plus," He continued in a hush tone. "I would have let Raivis do so, but I think he couldn't say anything. It looks like he has a little crush on someone."

Eduard was about to say something before chuckling a bit as he made a quick glance at Raivis, whose face was a bit redder than it was earlier. "I suppose so."

The door had clicked open, but this time it was Ivan who entered the room. He took a look at the three and smiled. "Hello, my friends! What brings you here today? Have you finally decided to take a day off and visit your former boss? Well, come over and give me a hug, I've missed you as well."

The three walked reluctantly towards their former boss and were only going to give him a small and quick hug, but he had gathered the three of them in a big embrace. "So, how have you been doing? Is the agency been the same as ever-"

"S-sir," Raivis spoke up. "I'm sorry, but we didn't come here to visit."

Ivan frowned. "I see that you wanted a direct approach. I've taught you three rather well. Alright, what do you want of me?"

"We want to know any strange occurrences that you've seen," Eduard said.

Ivan paused before he went to the back of the counter. "I have not witnessed anything. I don't want to talk about it. And if that is it, then please leave."

Eduard was about to speak up before Raivis stopped him. He looked up and nodded to Toris; he agreed and led Eduard outside of the store. Ivan sighed deeply and unlocked a drawer. Inside was a photo frame. He touched the glass gently and tried to smile as he stared at the photo frame of Yu-An.

Lili had returned and was about to say something to Ivan, but had held it back as she saw him with the photo frame again. She gently closed the door and concluded that she would just have to talk to him later.

Hours later, Rose had to leave early because she had remembered that she had to do some research at the library. Alfred frowned at this, to which Rose had responded by rolling her eyes followed by a kiss on his cheek. "Oh don't be such a big baby, I'll be at home by the time your shift ends."

Alfred nodded before she spoke up again. "And do me a favor, Alfred. Don't use the elevator, okay?"

For the rest of his time at work, Alfred had questioned why Rose would tell him to that. He tried to figure out all the logical reasons to avoid the elevator as he was cooking the orders. As he did, he was listing them in his mind. For one thing, there was the risk of the elevator getting stuck, or even the risk of the wires getting caught. Maybe he would get stuck with very suspicious passengers. After all, Rose had been keeping an eye on their new neighbors for a while now. Maybe it was just an act of instinct on this planet- to be suspicious of everybody until they deemed themselves innocent. The three men next door _were_ rather suspicious, Alfred thought. Mostly everybody in the town wore casual clothing, these men always wore suits, but maybe they worked in the city and only stayed here for financial reasons?

At the end of his shift, Alfred had concluded that riding the elevator wasn't that big of a threat. The chances of a technical difficulty while on the ride were slim, as he calculated the odds on his spare time. Plus, maybe the three men weren't going to go on the elevator when he would, anyways. What could possibly go wrong? When his shift had ended, it had started raining a few minutes before, and Alfred carried no umbrella with him. Elizaveta had offered to lend him her umbrella, but Alfred politely refused, saying that he only had to go down the block. An offer he shouldn't have refused, he thought as he walked through the rain. The walk from the apartment to the cafe wasn't long, but because of the heavy rainfall, it seemed like a mile. Once Alfred had reached the apartment, building, he quickly opened the door and without thinking, he ducked into the elevator.

He was tired, he was drenched, and all he wanted to do was dry up and go to bed with Rose after the long day without her. He leaned against a wall of the elevator, settling in a corner as he grieved about his situation. Water dripped from his hair and his jacket. His sneakers contained some water in them and along with his socks, they were damp, making his feet feel disgusting, uncomfortable, and cold. Alfred had understood that there were other people with worse problems than he had, but he was definitely having a bad day today.

While he was complaining to himself, he had noticed the elevator wasn't moving at all. The doors were closed, but he didn't feel like he was being lifted up to another floor. Looking at the panel in front of him, he had realized that he didn't press the button for the third floor yet. As he was about to, the door slid open, three new passengers boarding. One of them had quickly pressed the third floor button, and had turned to face Alfred, expression asking him what floor he was on. Alfred merely shook his head and smiled at the man. The man nodded and stepped back to his friends, but as he did, he accidentally bump into Alfred, but he had quickly apologized right after. The ride was short, but Alfred felt like one of the three was staring at them. Throughout the ride, he heard whispers coming from them, and when he would turn his head, the whispers would automatically stop.

When they got to their floor, Alfred had stepped out first, turning to his left to go to his room with Rose, the three men doing the same. As Alfred searched for his keys, he felt a tap on his shoulder. It was the man with the glasses. The man smiled, it seemed so sincere, yet something about it felt so sinister, but Alfred disregarded the feeling. "I think you dropped your keys."

As he handed Alfred the keys, he quickly identified them as his keys and began unlocking the door. After that, the man with the glasses walked into the apartment next to Alfred and Rose's apartment. Making a quick glance to his side, Alfred saw the man with the glasses smile at him, but it felt more threatening more than friendly. Realizing this, Alfred tried to open the door to the apartment quicker. As soon as he entered the apartment, he shut the door close, taking his keys with him. Eduard, on the other hand chuckled at Alfred's jittery attitude and walked back into the apartment.

After hearing the door slam close, Rose ran to the hallway, and had saw Alfred soaking wet. When she did, Rose dashed to the bathroom to get a towel. When Alfred had sat down on the dining chair, Rose had raised the temperature slightly and dried his hair.

"Alfred, dear, why didn't you ask for an umbrella from Kiku or Elizaveta?"

"I didn't think that I would need it," Alfred chuckled. Rose sighed deeply and rolled her eyes. "Rose."

"Yes?" She said as she continued drying most of Alfred off.

"I took the elevator."

"You did what?" Rose asked, in disbelief. "Did anything happen?"

"Not really, but one of the guys next door kind of creeps me out."

Rose grumbled, as she stopped drying Alfred off, now slumping into a chair. "I told you not to go on the elevator specifically because of that!"

"What do you mean?" Alfred asked as he took the towel from Rose.

"While you were with Madeline in the city, and today, I was doing some research on any threat that would come our way," Rose confessed. "I never really thought of doing such a thing before the three guys next door moved in, but..."

Alfred had momentarily stopped drying himself. "What did you read about elevators?"

"That they put some weird high-advanced shit in it to detect if you're from this planet or not," Rose answered. Alfred frowned; Rose cursing either indicated that she was pissed, stressed, or both. "Something along those lines, I just paid attention to the major points. God, Alfred, I told you to not use the fucking elevator."

Alfred stood up and bent over to hug Rose. "I'm sorry for worrying you, Rose."

"Sometimes, Alfred," She sighed deeply.

"If it makes up for anything, I've been having a bad day," He said.

"Wash up, dry off, and get in bed right after," She pulled away from his embrace for a moment and looked into his eyes. "Got it?"

Alfred chuckled and nodded. "Got it, I've learned my lesson, always listen to the almighty Rose."

"Good," She gave him a quick peck on the lips and motioned for him to go to the bathroom and do what he was told to do. After washing up, Alfred had walked into his bedroom with Rose, closed the door, slid under the bed sheets, and for the rest of the night, held her in his arms as he tried to forget all his troubles. Something he could only seem to do with Rose at his side.

Meanwhile, next door, Eduard was laughing triumphantly. Toris, who was cooking dinner didn't bother asking him what got him into such a great mood, so Raivis had done so for him.

"D-did anything turn u-up, Eduard?" Raivis asked, stuttering a bit.

"Yes! Yes something did turn up," Eduard boasted. "Who's willing to go with me into the forest?"

A little while before, Eduard had rushed into his room as soon as he got in the apartment. He logged on to his account on his computer, and as soon as he was online, he checked his alien tracking program, and the man next door was proven positive of alien interaction, which meant one thing. If the guy got the results of alien interaction, it means the girl was the alien. It made total utter complete sense. She was more aware of the dangers of alien hunters, plus she kept her guard up more than the guy did. But she couldn't be the only one here, right? So after concluding the data, using the information he got from the guy- Alfred, he was able to locate another alien in the area, which was in the woods. Perfect.

Toris had looked at Eduard for a second before he turned back to his cooking. Raivis sighed deeply and raised his hand, offering to go along with him. A couple minutes later, they were now in the forest. The rain had cleared up, but it was still showering. It was damp in the forest, causing it to have a funny smell that they would have to look over if they wanted to find anything. As they walked around, they tried not to slip on any mud created by the rain. They had reached the lake in a matter of minutes. It would have taken them a shorter time, but it was their first time in the forest. When they had reached the lake, they spent a good thirty minutes scouting the area, but in the end, turning up with nothing.

"L-let's just go back, Eduard," Raivis shivered as he walked on the shore. "There's nothing here."

"There is! There has to be!" Eduard said. "We just have to look harder."

Raivis grumbled and started scanning the area more thoroughly so that Eduard can decide that they've looked hard enough and they can go home already. He wanted to take a break from searching, but he had decided against it so he wouldn't have Eduard shouting in his ear. Sometimes he questioned why he even joined the agency in the first place. He grumbled and leaned against the object behind him. But after a while, he felt the surface of it and found it to be smooth and cold. Taking off some of the leaves, he saw that it was a large chunk of metal. But when he searched around it, it was not just a chunk of metal. It seemed to be a spaceship.

"Um, Eduard! I think I f-found something!" Raivis called.

The next morning, Alfred was stirring in his sleep before he woke up in cold sweat. Something felt strange, missing, out of place. But what was it? He tried to think of possible answers, but thought of none. Rose grumbled, got her glasses from the nightstand next to her bed.

"Is something wrong, love?" She asked as she placed her glasses on.

"Something feels wrong," Alfred said. "I don't know why, but... can I go check on Tony?"

"Of course you can, you don't need my approval Alfred."

"Can you come with me?" He asked.

"Sure, just let me get ready."

After they washed up, they took the stairs and went immediately to the forest. Alfred took a detour to where the space ship was instead of taking the usual route. He needed to speak with Tony. Sure, he had just spoken to him a couple of days ago, but something felt off. Something about him. That's when he realized it. When he got to the ship, it was in a circle of yellow police tapes. He couldn't believe it. Because of this, it was only logical that Tony wouldn't be in there either being taken away or already taken away.

"Alfred..." Rose whispered. "Let's go before we're caught."

"But Tony-"

"We'll find him. But if we stay, we'll be questioned and we won't be able to find Tony," She explained. "Let's go to the cafe first, okay? Inform Elizaveta that you'll have a day off, she'll understand."

Alfred nodded. After they fled the scene, they had gone to the cafe, Alfred telling Elizaveta that he suddenly didn't feel well. Elizaveta let him have the day off, adding the fact that if he had just took her umbrella, he wouldn't feel as bad. Alfred chuckled and agreed before he said his goodbyes and walked back to the apartment with Rose. As soon as they had entered the apartment, Alfred began freaking out.

"Rose," He whispered. "What if they got Tony? Wh-what if they're doing some weird stuff to him right now?"

"Tony's an intelligent creature, plus, knowing him, he wouldn't give up without a fight," Rose assured him. "You have to think about yourself too, Alfred."

"Rose," Alfred inched closer to her.

She wrapped her arms around his head and kissed his forehead. "Yes, love?"

"I'm scared," Alfred said. "I'm more scared than I am after a horror movie, Rose. No, this feels like a horror movie now."

For a few minutes, the apartment was silent as Alfred cried silently on Rose as she tried to comfort him. He held on to her tightly as she did the same, stroking his hair slowly and gently. Right now, she, like Alfred, felt so defenseless and useless. Alfred was out of ideas on how to save Tony, and Rose couldn't do a thing about it. He was suffering right now and all she could do was comfort him. It wasn't much, but it did help somehow. They had remained like this until they had repositioned themselves, lying down, them still holding on to each other. Alfred's crying had ceased when they did, him only breathing heavily as Rose was trying to calm him down. When Alfred had fallen asleep, Rose took his glasses off and placed it on the table next to the couch. After doing so, she did the same with hers, adjusted her position a bit and fell asleep with Alfred.

For a few hours, the pair had slept soundlessly on the living room couch, the two holding on to each other. They had been like this until Rose heard a rustling. Apparently, Alfred had heard it too. "What was that?"

Alfred placed his glasses back on and readjusted his position so he would be sitting down, Rose doing the same. After doing so, Alfred crept slowly to where the sound was coming from. As he walked to the cabinet under the sink, the rustling had increased. For a moment, it had stopped right before the cabinet doors flew open, with a figure emerging from it, attacking Alfred. The figure and Alfred were wrestling around in the kitchen before Alfred had managed to pin it down.

Rose squinted her eyes before she switched the kitchen lights on. "Tony?"

Alfred's eyes widened and sat up, Tony doing the same as he caught his breath. While Tony was doing so, Alfred caught him in a hug and squeezed him tightly, Tony sighed and patted Alfred's back. "You're a fucking cry baby, Al."

It had been raining all night yesterday, and even though it had decreased later on, it was still raining. Tony had dreaded the rain, saying it was far too gloomy, plus he hated the humidity and how damp everything was afterwards. During rainy days, water would always hit the space ship and if it was also windy, leaves would hit the space ship and Tony would always have to clean it afterwards. Today he had decided that he would just do so the following morning. He was far too tired tonight and all he wanted to do was drink a hot beverage and knock out.

But just as he was about to go to bed, he had felt something bad. It was strange, as this was the first time he had felt this. Something was off. He had realized that. After a few minutes of thinking, he had concluded that it was most likely Alfred getting into trouble again. As always. This had settled his conscience for a while, and he had decided to eat a snack to calm himself down more. As he walked towards the kitchen, he heard voices outside of the ship. Tony rushed over to the control room and monitored all the screens. Everything seemed to be normal as they could, until he saw a little man poking a side of the ship.

That was not good.

Tony sat on a rolling chair and rolled off to the other side of the control room. Maybe he can just scare the little human off with some noise. That was a classic scare on Earth, as in the horror movies, the humans would be frightened by mere sounds. It increased the paranoia and fear among them.

"Um, Eduard! I think I f-found something!"

Fuck. Too late. Tony tapped on the keys rapidly, making sure to lock everything down after he would flee the ship. As soon as he made sure everything was locked down, Tony fled to the woods, a blanket wrapped around him, and he navigated himself to where Alfred said he was residing in. He climbed in through the fire escape, but the window was close. Damn. He had the worst luck today. Tony covered himself with the blanket and slept the night under the blanket.

Hours passed and it was afternoon when Tony noticed the window next to him was open. He smiled to himself, taking the opportunity to get in the apartment. But when Tony heard the door knob jiggling, he quickly jumped into the room and under the bed. When he was under it, Rose sighed deeply, shut the window close, then closing the door again.

"And then after that he just apparently stayed in there until we saw him," Alfred translated. "Tony, you were giving me a heart attack."

"You're still a big baby," Tony replied. "By the way, yesterday, a message came in."

"He said a message came in."

Rose blinked. "What was it?"

Tony spoke, and Alfred translated for her. "Yesterday a message came in saying the rescue ship has to come. But now since I'm under suspicion, I have the decision of staying here and risking it or leaving. Rose-"

Rose couldn't believe her ears. She didn't want him to leave. She wanted him to stay with her, but she couldn't be selfish; she couldn't put Alfred's life at rise for her sake. "Alfred. Even though I want you to stay, you know that I have no choice but to let you leave. Your safety matters more, love. I don't want to see you get dragged away and- and be taken apart."

"You can come with us," Alfred suggested.

Rose shook her head. "It'll only raise suspicion."

Alfred nodded. He held Rose's hand and kissed it. "Then I'll just have to find you when I come back."

In the middle of this, Tony stared at the couple with a disgusted face, all while making gestures of himself vomiting. God, he hated the sight of a couple being overly sappy. For example, these two. And he just ate, lovely.

The next morning, they were getting ready to go to the shore for the rescue ship to pick Alfred and Tony up, with Rose tagging along to see Alfred off. Alfred got a free backpack from the spare room and Tony was told to climb in the bag for him not to be seen. Rose grabbed her keys and as she was about to open the door, she paused, but continued. "I was about to ask if you had your keys, but..." The two chuckled a bit.

After Rose locked the apartment, the group had started making their way down the hall. As they did, they had noticed that the three men from next door had stepped out from the apartment, when they did, they quickened their pace, and sped up as soon as they noticed more men. "Get the girl!"

This shocked them both. _The girl? _Were they planning to take Rose as hostage, or did they mistake the alien to be her? Either way, they knew one thing: they had to make a run for it. They grabbed each other's hand and dashed their way through the men and made it way to the second floor. Seeing as there was no one near the fire escape, they ran across the hall to it. When they got there, Rose quickly unlocked the window and pulled it up. She stepped through the window, and hopped off of the second floor. She looked up and saw Alfred who just closed the window and was hesitating to jump down.

"Just get down, you dolt!"

Alfred ran down the stairs and as soon as he had stepped on the ground, he and Rose continued to run, trying to avoid the men who were currently surrounding their building by hiding behind trees and buildings from the other side of the street. They couldn't retreat to the forest, as it would lure them to the rescue ship; they couldn't retreat back to the space ship, as it had already been discovered; the cafe was too near; so where would they hide? It took them a block to figure out, but they changed their paths and made their way to Madeline and Francis' house.

As she was baking, Madeline was humming along to the radio. Earlier that day, the mail came in. It was the usual; bills, requests for Francis, snail mail from Canada, but this time, there was an official looking envelope, as it was sealed in a manila file. Madeline was surprised when she found it in the mail, but she quickly rushed in and took a look at what was inside. To her disbelief, it was Alfred's birth certificates. Although, it was only his birth certificates, no adoption papers or anything, just the birth certificate and a couple of pictures. But she didn't have time to think about that at the time, oh no, she was far too excited that her brother's birth certificate came in.

She had planned to call Alfred later on the day as a surprise, but for the time being, she wanted to bake something like pancakes (pancakes were good for any time of the day, Madeline concluded) to celebrate. However, other than going to the store and buying more pancake batter, she had decided to just buy the ingredients for the pancake batter and just bake from scratch. Because of this, it took her a bit longer to bake the actual pancake. As she was mixing the batter, she hummed to the music on the radio.

Francis, from the other room heard the music from the kitchen, and he knew what it meant. Madeline was cooking. He smiled to himself and leaned against the door way as he watched his girlfriend walk around the kitchen, too lost in her work. She was humming along to the radio, and sometimes singing along to it in a low voice. Francis took his liberty and walked in, joining her. He walked behind Madeline, grabbing the bowl she was mixing the batter in. Instead of discontinuing her singing, she walked over and raised the volume and started singing louder. Naturally, Francis had joined her and started singing louder as well.

As they moved around the kitchen, they danced along to the song. As their fun escalated, they tried their best to not make a mess in the kitchen like the last time. Even though food fights are fun, they had to remember that it was their house and they had to be the ones to clean the mess up afterwards. When the pair finished putting the last batch in the oven, they made their way to the couch, Francis' arm wrapped around Madeline's waist. When they were near the couch, Madeline gently pushed him on it, but Francis had caught himself and Madeline. When she fell on the couch with him, he kissed her forehead.

The two were planning to just lie there, but they had to call Alfred and Rose. They would have called them when the first batch would be ready, but they should get there so they'll have more warmer pancakes. So when they heard a knock on the door, the two groaned, but Madeline was the one who ended up having to go and answer it. She tip toed and looked in through the peep hole and saw Alfred and Rose out there, so she opened the door.

"Oh, I was about to call you guys," She said, but the two ran in and caught their breaths.

Alfred sniffed the air. "Do I smell pancakes, or is it just me?"

Rose slapped his arm. "This isn't the time to think of food Alfred."

"But yes, there are pancakes. They're in the oven," Francis informed them. "But what I would like to know is why you two are so out of breath."

"I was about to ask the same thing," Madeline said as she took a seat next to Francis. "Who are you guys running from?"

"Our new neighbors," Rose answered. "They think I'm not from this planet. It's either that, or they're going to take me as hostage to lure Alfred."

Madeline sighed. "Your neighbors are weird. If you guys need to stay to wait them out, you're more than welcome to."

"Though, it doesn't surprise me that they're going after Rose," Francis chuckled. "Now it seems like old times now, doesn't it."

Rose glared at Francis as she grabbed a pillow and threw it at him. "Very funny, _frog_. Speaking of frogs, it reminds me of that time when you croaked in front of the audience for Princess and the Frog."

Francis gasped. "I thought we were not to speak of that ever again."

"Oops, I guess it slipped my mind, as yours did when you mentioned-"

"Guys," Madeline interrupted them. "This is no time to be fighting. But as long as you guys here, guess what I found in the mail?"

As Madeline made her way to where she placed the mail, Rose and Francis were silently arguing with each other while Alfred was trying to calm Rose down. Madeline got an envelope and handed it over to Alfred and smiled. He stared at the envelope, Rose and Francis ending their argument. He uncoiled the thin piece of thread and opened the flap. Slowly, he sat down and took out the contents of the folder. It was his birth certificate along with pictures of him and Madeline as babies.

He stared at the certificate before going through each individual photo. As he did, Madeline was talking to him about how it was found and such, but it was all toned out by Alfred. He looked over at each photo, with the collection being in order, as he saw him and Madeline grow older. But at the end of the stack, there was a final picture of him and Madeline, but with their birth parents. The room was silent as he touched over the picture of his parents.

This was total and complete utter bullshit. He had settled down and had already gotten used to the planet and the people surrounding him. He had found his sister in a matter of weeks, and he had gotten confirmation about it quickly. Other than that, he got other things that he wasn't expecting to get when had arrived. Alfred was offered a place to stay by Rose, he had gotten a job, and he eventually fell in love with Rose, who had fortunately for him, returned his feelings. And when everything was just about to fall into place, it was already being torn to pieces. Three men and a matter of weeks- that's all it took to shatter what he had.

Alfred took a deep breath, and placed his hand over Rose's. She blinked and looked at him. All she needed was that look and she knew what he was saying. She nodded to it. "Go tell her."

After that, Alfred had begun explaining his life story on how he really grew up, and where, most of all. It took a while for him to explain it all, making commentaries here and there to lighten the mood up. But it also took Madeline a while to take it all in, the same with Francis who was listening to Alfred intently as well. At the end of his explaining, the room was silent. Alfred was waiting for her reaction, while Madeline was still figuring out what to say.

"Well," Alfred looked up. "I think if that envelope hadn't come in the mail today, I would have thought you were crazy as your neighbors. It's still hard to understand that you weren't... raised here, and you don't exactly have proof but," She picked up the certificate along with the other photos. "This is more than enough proof to tell me that you are my brother."

Alfred smiled and moved over to hug his sister. Tony moved around in the backpack, wanting to get out and have some more room. Rose had noticed this and was about to open the bag up a bit before Alfred stopped her and took the book bag himself. "Well, if you still want proof," Alfred opened up the bag and revealed Tony, who jumped out of the bag as soon as it opened. "He's Tony, my adoptive brother."

Tony took a look at Madeline, sighed, and extended his arm for her to shake it. Madeline was a bit shocked. She wanted to shake its- no, his hand, but something held her back from doing so. In the end, she had reluctantly shook Tony's hand.

"Alfred," He said. "Hurry it up. The rescue ship's coming in thirty minutes."

"Question," Francis spoke up. "If you say that you are being hunted down by your neighbors, and most likely their friends, how do you expect to get there?"

"Run?" Alfred shrugged. "I guess we've never thought of it."

"Why doesn't the rescue ship just come and get you guys here?" Madeline suggested.

"One," Tony began. "The rescue ship needs a lot of room. Even though it's not gonna land, there are also other factors to suggest. Two, we don't want to attract even more attention, let alone pass it on to you two along with Rose. And three, it doesn't even know we're here. It just assumes that the lake is still safe to get us."

"Oh."

Tony nodded and stepped back inside the backpack. "The only option I can think of right now is to run without being detected. That means be agile, fast, and quiet."

"Or we can just drop you off. Does that work?" Madeline didn't drive 24/7 as Francis did more of that. The two owned one car, and shared it. Even though both of them could easily drive it, as both of them had their licenses, Francis was the one who drove it the most as he drove the car going to the office along with dropping and picking of Madeline from her university. Madeline preferred to walk or take the bus, the only reason at that time for her to learn how to drive was that she had appointed herself the designated driver amongst her friends. Now, seeing the predicament her brother and his girlfriend were in, it turns out that her learning how to drive was going to be put into more use other than being the designated driver.

The drive was quiet and wasn't that long as they got to the forest in a matter of minutes. Before the two got out of the car, Madeline spoke up. "You are coming back right?"

"Don't worry, Maddie," Alfred smiled. "As soon as these guys get off my case, I'm taking the first ship back here."

"Alright, I'd love to see you off," Maddie began. "But I might get suspected too. If I'm needed, I'll be parked at the cafe, ok?"

The pair nodded. "I'm gonna miss you Al," Alfred stretched over from the back seat and gave his sister a hug.

"I'm gonna miss you too, Maddie."

Alfred and Rose walked through the forest trying to be quiet as possible, being careful not to make too much noise for any of the government agents to locate them. Alfred had remembered that only four months ago, he and Rose had met here. She had told him how paranoid she had been when they had met, and Alfred completely understood. In turn, Alfred told Rose of how he was quite nervous as he was talking to her, also adding in the fact that it wasn't just because of the fact that she was the first human he had talked to, but that he had trouble talking to girls. Rose laughed, of course, and Alfred was a bit offended by it, but laughed it off with Rose.

He looked at Rose, who was holding his hand, walking right next to him. He wasn't the best in 'reading the atmosphere', as Rose had called it, and he had known that. But at times, he could tell when people were upset, and right now, Rose was. Although, it was more of a worried upset than an angered one. He couldn't exactly pinpoint on how he knew, he just did. Alfred wanted to reassure her that everything's going to work out and so, but he had to keep quiet. He didn't want to give them more trouble than he had already done. He gently squeezed her hand and took another look at her.

It wasn't long before the fleet arrived. Thankfully it was around night time, so it wasn't too noticeable. Alfred began walking towards the ship and has successfully made it under the ship and was being lifted up. As he was, Rose was looking up from her hiding spot and when Alfred was halfway through, she heard some rustling behind her just before she felt a hand grab her shoulder. Rose almost began to panic when she felt the hands grab her arm but she tried to shake them off by wiggling around. When she finally did, she got up and started running away to the other side of the forest, only to find more men. Most likely the agents that were chasing them away from their apartment. She groaned and began to turn around, but there was another group of agents.

"Damnit," She cursed under her breath. "What do you want from me?"

Eduard rolled his eyes and pointed up. "If you're not the alien, then you should be the accomplice," He looked up and grumbled. "And since they've already gotten away, then you can help us by telling us everything you know."

"I know nothing," Rose stated. "And I were to tell you, you have no proof if aliens do exist or not. For all they would know I would be just a raving lunatic and you were foolish enough to believe what I had to say. You have nothing on me."

"On the contrary," He smirked. "We did take pictures. So you better be ready to talk," Eduard turned around to face his men. "Take her to the van."

Rose continued in trying to get out of the agents' grasp as they were leading her to their van. But just as she was about to be thrown in to the van, she saw the lights around her flicker right before a complete blackout took over the town.

And that was all of what she remembered before she woke up in her room, a letter addressed to her on her nightstand. She blinked, reached for it and had begun to open the letter. When she did, there were only a few words written upon it. _Thank You. Love Alfred._

The letter had confused Rose greatly for the past three years, but even so, she had completed her book. One week after she got the letter, she had been struck with inspiration and had started on her writing almost immediately. The story was about this boy who was plucked from his planet and taken to another only to be told to find his true family. A fish out of water story, basically. And during his time on Earth, he would be taken in by a woman who would help him adjust to society. But as he would be residing on Earth, he would also meet his family.

Truthfully, Rose had no idea where she got this idea from, but after looking at the letter, which she had still kept with her by the way, she had just gotten an idea from it. The story had ended with the boy having to go back to his home planet because there were some complications due to his stay. After that, it had ended. Figuring out what to name the characters and the actual title was a difficult mission for her. Francis helped by writing a list of things of what _not _to name it, but Rose had settled down with the name that had fairly described the protagonist. _'Star Child'. _It was because the character was placed in a location he thought was near to him, in a way, but was really distant from him, in another way. The 'Star Child' would take the name of Arthur and for the woman, her name would be Amelia. Amelia's character was placed in a suburban location of England, and she would find Arthur roaming around.

Rose felt that the book had sold pretty decently, and as of right now, she was sitting next to a stack of the books where the book signing Francis had arranged would be. The day was long, even though she had only sat in the seat for an hour or two. But at that time, her hand was cramping and she was getting hungry. After Madeline pestering Francis, he had decided to let Rose go on a break for an hour. Rose smiled and thanked Madeline before she made her way to a restaurant next to the book store.

Over the three years of writing the book, a lot of things happened. Ivan, the flower shop owner had taken a month off. Lili, his assistant explained that his girlfriend had woken up from her comatose state, and Ivan visited her every day to help her. She had also told Rose that Ivan's sister, Katerina was found after years of being missing. Apparently, she had gone through a period of amnesia until she had recalled some of her memories. Raivis had asked Lili out, to which she had agreed to. Madeline and Francis were due to marry in a couple of months, and as for Rose, she was taking a break from the book signing.

When she had sat down in a table, she sipped her tea and looked at the crowd of people. As she did, one of them looked over his computer and smiled at her. Rose smiled back and had returned to her meal before the man walked over to her table. "Is this seat taken?"

Rose shook her head. "No, it isn't."

"May I?" She nodded. He sat down and extended his arm for a handshake. "Nice to meet you. You're Rose Kirkland right?"

"Indeed I am," Rose smiled as she shook his hand. "And you are?"

"Happy to have met you again," He replied.

"Again?" Rose asked, blinking before she looked at him again. And now, she had remembered what happened three years ago. "Alfred?"

Alfred only replied to this with a small smile. "I'm sorry that I had to make you forget, but-" He was interrupted when Rose had pulled him into a hug when she had walked next to his chair.

"I'm going to kill you for that later," Rose grumbled as she hugged him. Alfred smiled and returned her hug. Now he felt like it was home again.

* * *

**Audrey's Notes** At the end, to explain: Alfred used some sort of method for there to be a black out and erased the town's memories of him, including the agency Eduard works for. Rose's memories of Alfred were also wiped out, but she regained her memories when she met him again.


End file.
